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AMERICAN    MUSEUM    OF   NATURAL    HISTORY 


The  Saginaw  Valley 
Collection 


FRAGMENTS  OF  ANCIENT  POTTERY  FROM  SAGINAW  VALLEY,    MICHIGAN. 


B\' 


Harlan  I.,  Smith 


Assistant  Curator  of  Archsology 


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SUPPLEMENT    TO    AMERICAN    MUSEUM    JOURNAL 
VOL.  I,  NO.  12,  NOVEMBER=l)ECEMBER,    looi 


3  -  Hi  Sf 


ANTmOPPLDBT 


THE  CULTURE  OF  THE  PEOPLE  ONCE  INHABITING 
A  LIMITED  AREA  NEAR  SAGINAW,  MICHIGAN, 
AS  ILLUSTRATED  BY  MATERIAL  IN  THE  AN- 
THROPOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  AMER- 
ICAN MUSEUM  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY. 

By  Harlan   I.  Smith, 

Assistant  Curator  of  Archaeology-. 

The  rude  archaeological  objects  found  in  the  Saginaw  valley, 
Michigan,  and  exhibited  in  the  American  Museum  of  Natural 
History  show  that  the  prehistoric  people  who  lived  in  that  area 
were  largely  occupied  with  striving  for  the  necessaries  of  life. 
The  region,  although  not  at  all  desolate,  was  still  too  far  north  to 
support  a  civilization  that  would  leave  traces  of  a  culture  so 
largely  given  to  art  and  ritual  as  those  to  be  found  in  Mexico,  the 
Southern  States  or  even  in  the  Ohio  valley.  Such  a  collection 
of  rather  rude  implements  and  objects  has  value,  however,  in  that 
it  gives  evidence  regarding  the  lives  of  the  early  inhabitants  of 
the  country. 

The  objects  from  the  Saginaw  valley  were  found  in  such  places 
that  we  now  know  where  there  were  a  number  of  rather  important 
villages  and  a  still  larger  number  of  small  villages  or  camp 
sites,  besides  what  were  probably  scattered  habitations  and 
burial-places — all  of  the  early  people  of  this  region.  It  is  quite 
evident  from  areas  where  certain  stray  objects  were  found,  and 
from  the  scarcity  of  other  evidences  in  such  areas,  that  the  peo- 
ple also  made  trips  to  points  remote  from  the  villages,  probably 
for  fishing  and  hunting,  the  gathering  of  fruits  and  roots  or  the 
securing  of  material  out  of  which  to  make  arrow-points  and 
pipes;  and  that  the  objects  were  lost  on  the  way.  It  would 
seem  that  the  character  of  the  country,  with  the  scattered  dis- 
tribution of  its  products,  was  the  cause  of  the  segregation  of  the 
people  into  small  villages,  and  possibly  of  their  establishing 
small  outlying  camps  for  the  purpose  of  being,  at  certain  seasons, 
near  points  suitable  for  such  occupations  as  are  above  noted. 

The  importance  of  the  collection  exliibited  in  these  cases  is 
chieflly  that  it  indicates  the  character  of  the  culture  of  the  people, 
the    location     of    their    habitations,    burial-places,    caches    and 

3 


^78 


t  I  I  I  I  I- 


60  JS 


JSO. 


HEOLOGiC  MAP  OF  MICHK 


MOOMD. 
1NCL05URE. 

A  larger  map  of  the  cross-lined  area  will  be  found  on  page  8. 


->■  =        UUDEFINEB    ANTipunitS 

\u       =       CXMtTESY. 


The  Saginaw  Valley  Collection 


5 


mounds,  as  well  as  that  it  shows  something  of  their  resources,  in- 
dustries and  customs.  It  is  undoubtedly  the  largest  archaeological 
collection  from  the  Saginaw  valley,  and  was  made  and  presented 
to  the  Museum  by  the  writer,  whose  investigations  of  the  region, 
although  supplemented  by  later  work,  were  chiefly  accomplished 
during  the  period  from  1883  to  1891.  Practically  all  the  objects 
to  be  found  on  the  surface  of  the  particular  sites  from  which  the 


W.  Orchard,  Photo. 


Wedge  Shaped. 


CELTS  OR  CHISELS. 

About  I  Natural  Size. 


Adze  Shaped. 


collection  was  obtained  have  been  secured;  but  it  is  probable 
that  further  search,  especially  below  the  surface  and  in  the 
neighboring  fields,  would  bring  to  light  other  specimens  of  similar 
nature. 

The  Saginaw  valley,  including  the  entire  area  draining  into  Sag- 
inaw Bay,  occupies  the  east-central  portion  of  the  southern  penin- 
sula of  iSIichigan.  It  is  a  well-watered,  level  country,  formerly 
covered  by  dense  forests  of  pine,  oak,  elm,  ash,  maple,  hickory 
and  other  trees.  The  lowlands  are  occupied  by  swamps,  which  in 
places  are  largely  grown  up  with  wild  rice,  known  to  botanists  as 


6  The  Saginaw  Valley  Collection 

Zizania  aquatica  Linn,  a  staple  produced  by  nature  in  such  abun- 
dance that  it  was  of  great  importance  to  the  primitive  people  of 
the  region.  The  streams  which  were  of  the  most  importance  to 
the  prehistoric  inhabitants  of  the  valley  were  the  Saginaw  river  and 
its  main  tributaries,  including  the  Shiawassee,  Flint,  Bad,  Cass, 
Tittabawassee  and  their  branches,  while  the  Pigeon,  Sebewaing, 
Kawkawlin  and  Rifle  were  not  unimportant.     Bordering  the  lower 


W.  Orchard,  Photo. 


CHERT  NODULE  IN   LIMESTONE. 
From  Bay  Port  Quarries. 


courses  of  the  rivers  there  are  numerous  bayous  with  low  sand 
ridges  scattered  over  the  land  between  them.  At  the  head  waters 
the  streams  flow  more  swiftly  and  undercut  their  banks,  and  large 
bayous  and  swamps  are  less  frequent. 

Chert  or  impure  flint  was  extensively  quarried  and  chipped 
into  implements  by  the  prehistoric  inhabitants  of  the  valley,  and 
in  the  chipped  implements  found  on  the  village  sites  and  hunting- 
grounds  this  material  largely  predominates.  A  specimen  of 
limestone  of  Subcarboniferous  age  bearing  a  nodule  of  chert,  ob- 
tained at  the  modern  quarries  at  Bay  Port,  Michigan,  is  illus- 


The   Saginaw  Valley  Collection  7 

trated  on  the  preceding  page,  and  may  be  seen  in  the  case.  This 
outcrops  in  a  nearly  circular  line  cut  by  the  head  waters  of  the 
Cass,  Shiawassee  and  Tittabawassee  and  intersecting  Saginaw 
Bay  near  Point  Lookout  and  Kay  Port. 

When  white  men  first  visited  this  region,  it  was  inhabited  by 
the  Ojibwa  Indians.  The  name  of  this  tribe  is  variously  spelled, 
as  Chippewa,  Otchipwe,  etc.  Their  descendants  preserve  tra- 
ditions that  the  Sauk  or  Sac  Indians  formerly  occupied  the  valley 
and  were  driven  out  by  the  Ojibwa  and  their  allies,  while  the  Sac 
and  Fox  Indians  of  Iowa,  for  their  part,  have  traditions  to  the 
same  effect.     A  collection  from  these  Ojibwa  Indians  is  shown 


W.  Orchard,  Photo. 
SLATE  TABLETS   POSSIBLY  ORNAMENTS. 

About  f  Natural  Size. 


in  another  part  of  the  Museum  (Hall  No.  io6,  on  the  ground 
floor).  They  were  found  subsisting  on  a  variety  of  natural 
])roducts,  chief  among  which  were  wild  rice,  maple  sugar,  squash, 
corn,  wild  fruits  and  game. 

The  prehistoric  villages  were  located  along  the  streams,  be- 
cause of  the  importance  of  water,  wild  rice,  fish  and  the  land 
animals  which  frequented  the  river  banks  for  food  or  visited 
them  for  water.  Furthermore,  the  canoe  was  an  easier  means 
of  transportation  than  the  trail,  and  even  trails  were  more  easily 
formed  along  the  ridges  parallel  to  the  rivers  or  along  the  banks 
than  elsewhere.     The  outcrops  of  chert  and  pipestone  also  are 


ENLARGED    MAP   OF    THE    CROSS-LINED    AREA   ON  THE  MAP  OF  THE  STATE 
ON    PAGE   4. 


ARCH^OLOGICAL    MAP  OF  THE  SAGINAW  VALLEY, 

MICHIGAN,  SHOWING  THE  PRINCIPAL 

ANCIENT  SITES. 

SAGINAW  BAY,  EASTERN  SHORE,  Huron  County. 

1  North  Island  Workshops.  4  Bay  Port  Cache. 

2  Heisterman  Island  Village  Site.  5  Sharpsteen  Village  Site. 

3  Bay  Port  Village  Site.  6  Sebevvaing  Village  Site. 

SAGINAW  RIVER  VALLEY,  Saginaw  County. 

7  Hoyt  Camp  Site.  12  Esterbrook  Camp  Site. 

8  Wright  Graves.  13  Mobray  Camp  Site. 

9  Saginaw  Graves.  14  Ka-pay-shaw-vvink  Village  Site. 

10  Germain  Village  Site.  15  Green  Point  Mounds. 

11  Ayres  Camp  Site. 

SHIAWASSEE  RIVER  VALLEY. 

16  Merrill  Cache.  19  Albee  Workshop. 

17  St.  Charles  Graves.  20  Chesaning  Mounds, 
iS  St.  Charles  Mounds. 

FLINT  RIVER  VALLEY. 

21  Foster  Village  Site.  23  Stewart  Cache. 

22  Peonagowink  Village  Site.  24  Morse  Cache  No.  i. 

CASS  RIVER  VALLEY. 

25  Wille  Cache.  30  Cass  Village  Site. 

26  Fisher  Village  Site.  31  Bow  Village  Site. 

27  Fobear  Mounds.  32  Cook  Village  Site. 

28  Andross  Village  Site.  33  Simons  Prehistoric  Cemetery. 

29  Lull  Earthwork. 

TITTABAWASSEE  RIVER  VALLEY. 

34  Little  Camp  Site.  37  Frazier  Village  Site. 

35  Morgan  Camp  Site.  38  Tittabawassee  Village  Site. 

36  Andrews  Workshop.  39  German  Camp  Site. 


CO 

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CO 

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The  Saginaw  Valley  Collection  n 

exposed  by  the  rivers,  wliile  in  other  places  they  are  covered 
with  soil.  From  such  exposures  canoes  could  easily  descend  to 
villages  along  the  rivers,  while  to  carry  the  material  by  trail  to 
inland  settlements  would  have  been  laborious.  The  evidences 
from  the  numerous  village  sites  and  the  burial-places,  mounds 
and  other  remains,  indicate  that  the  conditions  of  life  in  pre- 
historic times  were  similar  to  those  which  existed  when  the 
Indians  were  first  met  by  white  men.  Fragments  of  pottery; 
pebbles  which  have  been  burned  and  broken,  probably  while 
used  as  supports  for  the  round-bottomed  pottery  cooking-vessels; 
ashes  and  charcoal  ;  the  broken  bones  and  shells  of  animals; 
arrow,  knife,  spear,  scraper  and  drill  points  of  chert;  points 
made  of  bone  for  arrows  or  awls;  celts  or  chisels;  hammer-stones; 
grooved  axes;  ornamental  objects,  etc. — all  are  to  be  seen  in 
this  case.  A  number  of  such  objects  when  found  on  the  sur- 
face of  the  ground  at  a  particular  place,  especially  if  pottery  is 
present,  constitute  the  evidence  which  proves  the  spot  to  have 
been  a  village  site.  Charcoal  and  ashes  alone  are  not  conclusive 
proof  of  a  village  site,  since  such  remains  may  have  been  left  by 
white  people  of  recent  times. 

Particular  Sites. 

North  Island  Workshops. — At  the  western  limit  of  Wild 
Fowl  P5ay  is  North  Island,  on  the  northern  side  or  highest  part  of 
which  chert  implements  were  found  in  all  stages  of  manufacture, 
from  the  nodular  masses  occurring  in  the  substratum  of  the  entire 
island  to  the  finished  chipped  points  for  spears,  arrows,  knives 
and  similar  objects.  Here  also  were  found  chips,  flakes  and 
other  discarded  fragments  of  the  same  material, — the  waste  from 
the  i)rocesses  of  manufacture, — indicating  the  site  of  an  ancient 
workshop.  Chipped  implements  of  other  material  than  chert 
have  not  been  obtained  at  this  locality. 

Heisterman  Island  Village  Site. — The  highest  portion  of 
Heisterman  Island  is  the  northeastern  side  and  there  the  sand 
ridges  slope  to  the  marshes  known  as  the  Middle  Crounds. 
These  marshes  are  frequented  by  fish,  and  wild  fowl  assemble 
here  in  large  numbers  to  feed  on  the  wild  rice.  The  rice  alone, 
which  does  not  border  other  portions  of  the  island,  may  have 


The  Saginaw  Valley  Collection  13 

determined  the  site  of  this  prehistoric  village.  The  limestone 
bearing  chert  suitable  for  the  manufacture  of  arrow-points  under- 
lies the  island  and  outcrops  on  its  western  shore  within  easy 
access  of  this  site.  Hammer-stones,  chipped  points  for  arrows, 
knives,  spears,  drills,  etc.,  and  chipped  flint  implements  resem- 
bling small  hoes  were  gathered  here,  as  well  as  fragments  of  pot- 
tery and  a  piece  of  a  pottery  pipe.  Many  of  the  potsherds  are 
neatly  ornamented,  some  by  incised  designs,  others  by  designs 
made  by  pressing  twisted  cord  or  twine  into  the  clay  while  it  was 
soft.  Another  important  locality  is  the  one  known  as  Bay  Port 
Village  Site,  from  which  the  grooved  stone  hammer  used  for  our 
illustration  was  taken. 

Near  some  of  the  villages  hidden  deposits  or  caches  have  been 
found,  fourteen  in  all  having  been  discovered  in  the  Saginaw 
valley.  The  specimens  from  a  number  of  these  may  be  seen  in 
this  collection.  That  the  quarries  from  which  the  Indians  ob- 
tained their  raw  material  have  yet  to  be  found  is  possibly  because 
signs  of  them  may  have  been  obliterated  by  modern  quarrymen 
or  by  the  grinding  of  the  ice  or  the  beating  of  the  surf  against  the 
lake-shore  outcrops  during  the  many  years  which  must  have 
elapsed  between  the  time  when  the  Indians  abandoned  the 
quarries  and  the  time  when  the  first  archaeologist  saw  the  site. 
The  caches  seem  to  indicate  that  expeditions  were  made  to  these 
quarries  and  a  large  number  of  the  partly  finished  forms  were 
chipped,  and  that  they  were  taken  to  the  vicinity  of  the  permanent 
camp  and  cached  in  the  earth,  where  the  stone  would  be  kept 
from  becoming  weathered. 

Bay  Port  Cache. — One  cross-section  of  a  chert  nodule  and 
forty-seven  "turtle-back"  blank  forms,  constituting  a  cache, 
were  found  two  feet  below  the  surface,  in  the  muck  jungle,  about 
a  hundred  feet  from  the  shore  of  Wild  Fowl  Bay,  and  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  east  of  the  wharf  at  Bay  Port.  The  place  is  between 
the  bay  and  the  sand  ridge  on  which  the  Bay  Port  village  site  is 
located.  The  specimens  in  the  cache  were  found  in  one  long 
row,  overlapping  one  another  somewhat  like  shingles  on  a  roof. 
It  is  probable  that  the  material  of  which  they  were  made  was 
obtained  near  the  spot,  since  the  outcrop  of  Subcarboniferous 
rock,  which  occurs  for  some  distance  along  the  beach  westward 
from  the  wharf,  bears  concretions  the  material  of  which  is  similar 


14  The  Saginaw  Valley  Collection 

to  that  of  the  cache  specimens.  There  are  several  outcrops  of 
this  rock  within  a  mile,  especially  along  the  beach  to  the  west. 
In  this  cache  there  were  some  blades  of  peculiar  form,  having  a 
straight  beveled  edge  on  one  side.  It  seems  probable  that  this 
was  caused  by  flaking  the  pieces  for  turtle-backs  from  a  round 
concretion.  The  first  flake  removed  would  be  symmetrical,  but 
each  of  the  succeeding  flakes,  if  the  material  were  used  without 
waste,  would  have  one  side  beveled  where  the  one  before  it  had 
been  removed  from  the  nodule.  Not  all  of  the  flakes  had  been 
subjected  to  sufficient  chipping  to  remove  the  signs  of  this  bevel. 


W.  Orchard,  Photo. 
SEGMENT  OF  NODULE,   RUDE  BLANK  AND  CHIPPED  POINT. 

From  the  surface  of  the  Esterbrook  Village  Site. 
About  I  Natural  Size. 


More  or  less  evidence  has  been  found  of  the  existence  of  a 
number  of  village  sites,  burial-places,  mounds  and  prehistoric 
battle-grounds  from  Bay  Port  southward  along  the  shore  of  Sag- 
inaw Bay,  on  the  western  shore  of  the  bay  and  along  the  lower 
course  of  Saginaw  River.  There  are  Ojibwa  traditions  also 
which  tend  to  confirm  the  archaeological  evidence.  From  such 
sites  the  quantity  of  material  in  this  collection  is  not  sufficient 
to  warrant  a  detailed  description  of  it  in  this  place.  This,  how- 
ever, is  given  in  a  summary  of  the  Archaeology  of  Saginaw  Valley, 
Michigan,  published  in  the  American  Anthropologist  beginning 
with  Part  II,  1901.     The  fragments  of  pottery,  arrow-points  and 


The  Saginaw  Valley  Collection 


15 


other  objects  found  on  the  surface  of  the  sand  ridges  along  the 
eastern  side  of  Saginaw  River  in  the  city  of  Saginaw,  indicate  a 
number  of  village  sites  which  were  separated  by  bayous.      I'roni 
one  of  the  latter  series 
there  has  been  obtained 
one    of     the    so-called 
"  bird-shaped  "  stones 
which    is   evidently   in 
process     of    manufac- 
ture.   The  greater  por- 
tion    of     the     surface 
shows  the  pits  caused 
by  "  pecking,"  as  it  is 
technically  called,  that 
is,  the  bruising  of  the 
surface    of    the    stone 
and  the  brushing  away 
of  the  crushed  particles 
until    it    has    assumed 
the  shape  desired.    At 
either  side  of  what  was 
to  have  been  the  head, 
the  next  process  in  the 
manufacture  had  been 
taken  up,  as  is  shown 
by  the  rubbed  surfaces. 
It  is  probable  that  this 
rubbing  was  done  with 
a  rather  coarse  stone, 
and  that  the  implement 
would   have    been   fin- 
ished by  polishing. 

Mobray  Village 
Site. — This  site,  which 
is  on  the  east  side  of 
the  river  in  South  Sagi- 
naw, had  on  its  surface 

a  sandstone  pipe  decorated    with  neatly    arranged  pits.     Rock 
which  outcrops  in  the  bottom  of  the  Cass  river  was  mentioned  as 


W.  Orchard,  Photo. 

"FLUTED"  OR  CORRUGATED  STONE  CHISEL. 
'Fluted  "  celts  are  found  only  in  Michigan  and  Wisconsin 
and  this  form  is  rare.     Collected  by  Mr.  Albert  Harkels. 
Natural  Size. 


i6  The  Saginaw  Valley  Collection 


early  as  1859  in  the  State  geological  reports  as  being  material 
used  by  the  Indians  of  the  region  for  their  pipes.  It  is  possible 
that  this  pipe  was  made  of  similar  material  which  was  brought 
down  the  Cass  by  canoe,  that  being  the  most  natural  way;  an  idea 
which  is  strengthened  by  the  fact  that  the  early  pioneers  depended 
on  the  canoe,  at  first,  for  transportation  along  the  same  route. 

Ka-pay-shaw-wink  Village  Site. — This  is  a  large  village 
site  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Saginaw  river,  just  below  the  junc- 
tion of  the  Tittabawassee  and 
Shiawassee  rivers.  The  ar- 
chseological  evidence  found 
at  this  locality  coincides  with 
the  Ojibwa  traditions,  which 
state  that  in  ancient  times  a 
great  villageof  the  Sac  Indians 
was  located  here.  A  cache 
consisting  of  fifty-nine  blades 
was  found  about  a  foot  below 
the  surface  at  this  spot.  The 
implements  found  in  it  are 
leaf-shaped,  average  about 
one  and  one-fourth  inches  in 
length  and  are  of  chert.  One 
of  the  blades  had  been  special- 
ized by  notching  at  the  base. 
This  cache  is  known  as  Golson 
Cache  No.  2.  There  are  two 
large  dome-shaped  mounds  on 
the  western  side  of  the  river, 
opposite  the  Ka-pay-shaw- 
wink  village  site,  and  it  is 
related  by  the  Indian  tradi- 
tions that  a  part  of  the  exterminated  Sacs  were  buried  in 
them.     They  are  known  as  the  Green  Point  mounds. 

Wille  Cache.—  A  cache  consisting  of  two  celts  and  about  175 
chipped  blades  of  triangular  shape  averaging  an  inch  and  a  half 
in  length  was  found  in  a  small  marsh  hole  or  periodic  pond  near 
the  north  bank  of  the  Cass  river  about  three  miles  from  Saginaw. 
Specimens  are  shown,  also,  from  various  sites  on  the  Shiawassee 


W.  Orchard,  Photo. 
PIPE  MADE  CF  SANDSTONE. 
Collected  by  John  Rainbow  on  the  Mobray 
Camp  Site.     Natural  Size. 


The  Saginaw  Valley  Collection  17 

and  Flint  river,  but,  as  in  the  case  of  many  of  the  other  sites  in 
the  region,  they  must  be  here  passed  without  further  mention. 

Fobear  Mound  No.  i. — A  group  of  four  mounds  was  found 
on  tile  land  of  Mr.  Leonard  Fobear  on  the  south  side  of  the  Cass 
river  nearly  opposite  the  Wille  cache,  or  about  four  miles  above 
Saginaw.  One  of  these  was  thoroughly  explored  in  1894  and  a 
number  of  skeletons,  besides  fragments  of  pottery,  chips  of  chert 
and  other  objects  of  like  nature  were  found  in  it.  Persons  not 
acquainted  with  archaeological  field-work  often  ask  how  the  ex- 
plorer knows  where  to  dig,  hence  a  brief  outline  of  the  begin- 
ning of  operations  at  this  mound  may  be  of  some  interest.     On 


'£?T'"  •    M       ,,^rSSfc 


^ 


Harlan  I.  Smith,  Photo. 
THt  EASTERN  OF  THE  GREEN   POIi-JT  MOUinIDS  FROM  THE  SOUTH. 


first  visiting  this  locality,  the  author  viewed  it  from  several 
directions  and  felt  that  the  mound  was  of  such  slight  elevation 
and  so  much  like  the  natural  knolls  in  the  same  meadow  with  it 
that  it  might  be  only  a  natural  rise  in  the  ground;  but,  on  walking 
over  the  middle  of  it,  he  noticed  in  the  short  meadow  grass  some 
yellow  soil  which  had  been  thrown  up  out  of  a  woodchuck  bur- 
row. Such  material  must  have  come  from  below  the  reach  of  the 
plow,  since  all  the  surface  soil  was  black.  In  the  yellow  earth 
were  several  fragments  of  pottery,  but  such  bits  are  to  be  found 
anywhere  in  the  surface  soil  of  the  neighboring  fields.  A  human 
tooth  lying  among  the  potsherds  suggested  the  idea  that  a  human 


jsif.imiiiin^^.m.mf 


The  Saginaw  Valley  Collection  19 


skeleton  might  be  underneath,  and  that  the  knoll  was  in  reality 
a  burial  mound  and  not  a  natural  elevation,  for  human  teeth  have 
not  yet  been  brought  up  from  the  interior  of  natural  knolls. 
On  excavating  the  mound,  several  human  skeletons  were  found 
near  the  base  of  the  burrow.  Thus  tlie  wood-chuck,  of  interest 
to  the  student  of  mammals,  was  of  assistance  to  a  worker  in 
another  department  of  science. 


CASS  CACHE  No.  2. 

Cass  Cache  No.  II. — This  cache,  consisting  of  22  blanks 
and  12  pieces  of  nodules  of  chert,  very  similar  to  that  of  the 
Subcarboniferous  outcrop,  was  found  just  below  the  surface  of 
the  earth,  near  the  south  bank  of  the  Cass  river,  at  a  point  about 
four  miles  above  Saginaw.  The  12  pieces  of  raw  material  lay  in 
a  pile  and  the  22  blades  were  spread  out  near  them.     Chips  and 


W.  Orchard,  Photo. 


THE  ANDROSS  URN. 


The  Saginaw  Valley  Colleetion  21 

flakes,  also,  were  abundant  near  the  cache,  and  it  is  possible  that 
this  was  a  workshop,  the  raw  material  being  piled  in  one  place 
and  the  worked  rock  in  another,  beside  it.  The  blanks  found 
here  included  both  forms  described  under  Bay  Port  Cache. 

Andross  Village  Site. — This  site  is  at  Bridgeport,  about 
six  miles  from  Saginaw,  and  is  one  of  the  many  which  have  been 
found  on  the  Cass  river.  It  is  worthy  of  note,  because  it  fur- 
nished the  large  pottery  urn  which  is  illustrated  on  page  20,  and 
which  is,  perhaps,  the  most  interesting  specimen  in  the  collec- 
tion. While  a  pioneer  was  plowing  on  the  site,  the  foot  of  one 
of  his  oxen  suddenly  sank  into  a  hole.  On  investigation,  the 
farmer  found  that  the  ox  had  broken  through  the  bottom  of  an 
urn  which  had  been  turned  mouth  downward  over  the  head  of  a 
human  skeleton.  This  urn  is  three  feet  nine  inches  in  circum- 
ference and  one  foot  eight  inches  in  height,  but  before  it  was 
broken  it  must  have  been  at  least  two  feet  high.  It  is  reported 
that  a  number  of  similar  urns  have  been  found  near  Detroit,  and 
one  was  dug  up  at  Point  Lookout  on  the  west  side  of  Saginaw 
Bay;  but  unfortunately  all  these  specimens  have  been  broken  or 
lost,  so  that  the  Andross  urn  is  probably  unique. 

Andrews  Workshop. — On  the  Tittabawassee  river,  as  on 
the  other  streams,  we  find  a  number  of  village  sites  and  burial- 
places.  One  is  on  a  sand  ridge  east  of  the  river,  near  Paine's 
Station,  about  five  miles  west  of  Saginaw.  Here  the  wind  had 
blown  under  some  buildings  and  removed  the  light  sand,  leav- 
ing a  deep  hole  of  considerable  area.  Over  the  surface  of  the 
sand  remaining  in  this  hole  were  left  wagon-loads  of  chips  and 
flakes  of  chert,  arrow-points  in  various  stages  of  manufacture, 
small  hammer-stones  and  a  few  other  objects,  all  indicating  that 
the  place  was  once  a  workshop.  The  hammer-stones  are  merely 
pebbles  that  have  been  battered  in  pounding,  or  pebbles  which 
have  been  provided  with  a  pit  on  either  side,  so  that  the  thumb 
and  middle  finger  may  grasp  them  more  securely.  These  were 
used  in  breaking  up  the  pieces  of  chert  and  bringing  them  some- 
what into  the  form  of  the  chipped  points  for  arrows  and  similar 
implements.  It  is  probable  that  a  bone  implement  was  used  for 
the  finer  flaking  necessary  to  finish  the  object. 

Some  copper  beads  which  were  found  on  this  site  are  of  particu- 
lar interest,  since  they  show  that  the  native  coi)per  from  Lake 


2  2  The  Saginaw  Valley  Collection 

Superior,  was  hammered  into  the  form  of  beads  which  are  alto- 
gether different  from  those  made  of  the  thin  rolled  copper  fur- 
nished the  Indians  by  the  white  people  during  more  recent  times. 
These  beads  had  evidently  been  at  this  place  for  a  long  time,  a 
circumstance  indicated  by  the  corroded  condition  of  the  copper. 
The  copper  salts  due  to  corrosion  are  of  a  preservative  nature 
and  have  kept  from  total  destruction  portions  of  the  cord  on 


W.  Orchard,  Photo. 
FRAGMENTS  OF  POTTERY  FROM   FRAZIER  VILLAGE  SITE. 

Nearly  Natural  Size. 

which  the  beads  had  been  strung.  Had  these  beads  been  of 
shell  or  stone,  or  of  any  other  material  that  did  not  produce 
such  a  salt,  the  cord  would  not  have  been  preserved,  and  we 
should  not  have  known  that  it  was  of  vegetable  fibre,  but  might 
quite  properly  have  supposed  that  the  beads  had  been  strung 
upon  a  thong  of  buckskin. 

Frazier  Village  Site.— This  was  a  very  large  village  site  and 
was  located  on  the  south  side  of  the  Tittabawassee  river  near 
Paine's  Station,  about  five  miles  above  Saginaw.  It  is  mentioned 
in  the  Ojibwa  traditions  as  being  the  place  where  a  large  village 
was  captured  by  the  invading  force.  At  this  spot  some  fragments 
of  pottery  were  secured  which  have  decorations  made  with  cords 


The  Saginaw  Valley  Collection  23 


%4\ 


4 


like  those  of  the  Heisternian  Island  pottery.  A  mound  of  un- 
usually large  size  is  said  to  have  been  located  on  this  site  and  the 
many  human  skeletons  found  here  are  supposed  to  have  been 
those  of  the  unfortunate  Sacs.  This  mound  has  been  entirely 
removed  for  the  commercial  purpose  of  obtaining  the  sand  of 
which  it  was  con- 
str  acted.  It 
seems  possible 
that  the  site  was 
really  a  burial 
ground  in  a  nat- 
ural knoll  of  sand. 
A  cache  consist- 
ing of  over  300 
pieces  was  found 
about  a  foot  be- 
low the  surface 
on  this  site.  In 
the  cache,  which 
was  located 
within  a  few  hun- 
dred feet  of  the 
Frazier  mound, 
were  found  four 
varieties  of 
blades:  First, 
large,  black, leaf- 
shaped  i  m  p  1  e- 
ments,  about  8 
inches  long,made 
of  black,  concre- 
tionary chert  and 
having  a  very 
delicate   stem 

formed  at  the  tip  of  the  base  by  two  notches  ;  Second, 
similar  implements,  about  3  inches  long,  showing  concre- 
tionary structure  very  plainly,  the  centre  being  black  and  hard, 
the  tips  grading  off  by  successive  rings  to  a  comparatively  soft 
yellowish  chert;  Third,  small  forms  made  of  yellow  chert  and 


\V.  Orchard,  Photo. 
REPRESENTATIVE  SPECIMENS  FROM  FRAZIER  CACHE  No.  1 
About  5  Natural  Size. 


24  The  Saginaw  Valley  Collection 

evidently  intended  for  specialization;  Fourth,  a  few  of  the  latter 
specialized  by  notching.  Objects  made  of  the  same  material  are 
only  rarely  found  in  the  region,  hence  these  were  probably 
brought  from  a  distance.  A  cache,  a  few  feet  from  the  preced- 
ing, consisted  of  one  large,  black,  leaf-shaped  implement,  similar 
to  those  of  the  last  mentioned  and  surrounded,  it  is  said,  by 
thirteen  rubbed  stones. 

The  foregoing  description  contains  but  a  general  indication  of 
the  archaeology  of  the  Saginaw  valley,  as  outlined  by  a  single 
collection.  Those  who  care  to  pursue  the  inc^uiry  further  are  re- 
ferred to  the  more  detailed  descriptions  published  in  the  Ameri- 
can Anthropologist,  though  even  these  are  not  supposed  to  ex- 
haust the  theme  presented  by  this  limited  area  alone.  Thorough 
explorations  in  the  mounds,  graves  and  village  sites  are  neces- 
sary to  supplement  what  is  now  known  from  the  surface  evidence 
and  from  the  few  explorations  which  have  been  made  beneath 
the  surface. 

Of  the  archaeology  of  many  other  parts  of  Michigan  still  less  is 
known,  and  it  is  of  the  greatest  importance  that  thorough  work 
should  be  done  in  several  centres  of  culture,  not  only  in  the 
Saginaw  valley,  but  also  in  other  parts  of  Michigan  and  in  fact 
throughout  the  Central  States,  in  order  to  solve  the  enigmas  that 
have  long  puzzled  the  students  of  the  early  iVmericans.  The 
Mississippi  and  St.  Lawrence  valleys  are  rich  in  archceological 
material,  but  it  is  almost  useless  to  indulge  in  speculations  de- 
rived from  scattered  bits  of  evidence  from  widely  separated  parts 
of  the  country.  The  time  has  come  when  our  studies  must  be 
based  upon  exhaustive  and  detailed  investigations  made  in  a 
scientific  manner,  at  one  place.  These  may  then  be  compared 
with  the  results  of  similar  studies  carried  on  at  all  other  parts  of 
the  region  of  which  knowledge  is  desired  and  substantial  prog- 
ress will  be  made  toward  unraveling  the  history  of  the  early 
Indian  tribes  in  this  country. 


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